Ableton Forum

Akai MINIAK seems to be gorgeous synthesizer.
Especially now being discontinued and with price drop to 299 euro only
What do you think about it? DO somebody own it? I know it has same DNA as Alesis Micron, but does it sound better and what about its construction - as far as i remember Alesis micron has its problems with knobs...

I'm pretty sure the Micron and the Miniak have identical synth engines. The only differences between the two are cosmetic. I think the Miniak adds an XLR mic input for vocoder, and changed the sliders to nice wheels. Are those things enough to make me want to switch from Micron to Miniak? Absolutely not.

These machines are very capable of creating some amazing sounds, and if the interface scares you, check out some of the free and commercial editors available. They make it like working with a VST instrument. The unit does have a very unique sound to it, in the same way that a moog sounds like a moog, a roland like a roland. This sounds like Alesis. Whether that's good or bad is a matter of taste.

I've seen Microns go for less than $200 here in the US. It's hard to believe such a great synth is being let go for so cheap. If it's your first synth, just be willing to spend some time getting to know your instrument. It may not be as immediate as some other modern synths. Otherwise, highly recommended.

Wow, discontinued already huh? I"d rather have the MiniAk than the Micron, but only for cosmetic reasons and because I like wheels and not sliders. Otherwise they're the same. Great synths too.

I wonder if Akai/Alesis/Numark will release another hardware synth in the near future. I always thought the Miniak was a very strange product, and when it's so apparent that it's just a re-skinned Micron, I think it would be hard to justify the extra cash. Perhaps they have something new cooked up.

I dont know about the MINIAK I did a review on it:
http://thedspproject.com/akai-miniak-review

The little screen is a bit crap and hard to read and having no USB is also a bit crap but I guess that all depends on how your going to use it.

i just sold my micron... just too hard to program without an editor

i was just in touch with akai's service support, just for fun ... and what i have figured out :

1) Sorry, it's not possible to load Micron patches into the Miniak.

Best Regards,
Justin Baro

2) They (Micron and miniak i guess) would be similar in function though the sysex data between them is specific to the machine that they were created on.

As far as new OS updates, we do not hear of what’s coming in advance but only once they become available on our website.

For an editor program, I would be glad to log this comment as an official feature request.

so they are pretty much motherfuckers without any help

but still ive sold my micron and ordered MINIAK yesterday ...